The UAE and India: lessons to learn
As part of its efforts to diversify the economy beyond oil, the UAE is increasingly looking east – to India, China, Japan, South Korea.
By Aditi Bhaduri
While the attention of the world has been focussed on the Covid-19 pandemic, some welcome, positive events have been unfolding in West Asia. Iran is one of the worst-hit countries by the pandemic. While like all other countries Iran too has been caught off guard, another burden that it has to cope with, and which has been complicating its fight against the pandemic, is the sanctions imposed on it by the US.
There has been no easing of sanctions to help the country battle Covid-19. While China and Russia have called for easing sanctions, and China has been extending it medical and other aid, a welcome step was made by the UAE, which also sent medical and relief supplies to the Persian country. “Providing life-saving assistance to those experiencing distress is essential to serving the common good,” the UAE’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, Reem bint Ibrahim al Hashimy, said in a statement. “The leadership and people stand shoulder to shoulder with nations in their time of need.”
The UAE’s actions have indeed been commendable. What makes it doubly significant is that it lies on the other side of the Shia-Sunni divide in the region. Iran is a neighbour, and a regional power, says Ebtesam al Ketbi, Director of Emirates Policy Centre, the UAE’s top policy think tank. “We acknowledge that Iran is a regional power but it does not mean that we acknowledge that Iran would be a hegemonic power in the region, we don’t accept the sectarian policies that Iran follows in the region, we don’t accept [it] creating proxies and militias to destabilise the nation state in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen. We have some relations and some cooperation in maritime security but we have interests and they have their interests but it does not mean that our interests are identical. We agree on something but we oppose Iran in many things.”
If Iran wants to be a normal state, respecting international law, and being a responsible state, abandoning being in revolution, and being a responsible state then welcome to the international community… [But if] Iran wants to be [in a state] of revolution forever, then no one will accept that. Not us, not the region, not the international community.
The battle against political Islam is the biggest battle being fought in the Middle East today. Iran is seen as the major insurrector of political Islam with the 1979 Islamic revolution it ushered in. Successive wars in the region, beginning with the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, had their raison d’être in containing the revolution, preventing it from spilling over into the neighbouring Gulf states, all of which are monarchies.
The Arab Spring that began in 2010 with the death of a Tunisian fruit vendor threatened the status quo in the Middle East again, felling old regimes and ushering into power the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, one of the largest and militarily powerful states in the region. In swathes of Iraq and Syria the ISIS took control, whose ideology is also rooted in political Islam. ISIS directly threw the gauntlet to the Gulf states. On the other hand Iran extended its influence into Iraq, forming the Shiite arch, extending into Lebanon and all the way to Syria. Meanwhile, states like Qatar and Turkey extended support to the Muslim Brotherhood in its many avatars.
The main drivers of the UAE’s foreign policy became the preservation of the nation state. “Preserving the nation state from non-state actors, fighting terrorism, spreading tolerance and modernity in the region. These are the UAE’s main goals,” points out Ketbi. To that end, the UAE participates in the blockade of Qatar, a fellow GCC member, alleged to be supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and its many avatars, it supported President Fatah al Sisi of Egypt in overthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohammed Morsi, it joined the war in Yemen against the Houthi rebels, armed and supported by Iran; together with Egypt the UAE remains one of the main supporters of the Khalifa Haftar, who is battling the Islamist regime of Benhallaj in Libya.
But the UAE’s policies are also leavened by pragmatism and realism. Hence, the UAE today has re-established relations with Bashar al Assad’s Syria, recently opening its embassy in Damascus, burying the hatchet with Syria, which has emerged as a frontline state in the region battling both Islamic radicalism and political Islam. The UAE has also been trying to talk to factions of the Yemen rebels and has withdrawn from the civil war there while continuing its humanitarian support to the populace. In the same vein it has also extended medical support to Iran, with which it continues to have trade relations. The UAE has also opened up channels of communication with Israel, though it does not have formal diplomatic relations.
Simultaneously, as part of its efforts to diversify the economy beyond oil, and to diversify strategic partnerships, the UAE is increasingly looking east – to India, China, Japan, South Korea. Considering ties with India, they have never been better. “Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Abu Dhabi during August 2015 and the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed al Nahayan came to New Delhi in February 2016, the ties are growing exponentially,” UAE Ambassador Ahmed Albanna said last year speaking at an event. These ties encompass numerous fields – defence, counter-terror, economic, energy, education, culture, space research, labour.
The largest Indian expatriate community lives in the UAE – some 3.3 million people, remitting back almost $13.8 billion. Bilateral relations have been elevated to a strategic partnership and bilateral trade amounts to $ 60 billion. Bilateral visits at the highest levels have taken place between the two countries. Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC became the first foreign company to build strategic oil reserves in India. “India is a rising power, and I would say the UAE is looking to India [as] balance for the security in the region with its maritime forces. India is also a promising country for investments; there are many levels at which the UAE can develop relations with India,” explains Ketbi.
But there are other areas too in which India and the UAE find common ground. The UAE is one of the few countries in West Asia – and India’s extended neighborhood – which is investing heavily in promoting pluralism and tolerance, renovating churches, building temples, fostering a culture of appreciation for cultural diversity and religious pluralism; it even has a Minister for Tolerance. With almost 200 nationalities residing in the emirates, a culture of tolerance is but natural. In this both India and the UAE can synergise their experiences and efforts in a region particularly rife with religious and sectarian divides.
